DTRPG Says 'Don't criticize us or we'll ban you'

[aramis erak]

You seem to be arguing that DTRPG must act in the interest of other businesses which are themselves acting against DTRPG’s interest.

The US has that aspect enshrined in law. The Sherman act, aka The Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
It doesn't actually require monopoly, just being a sufficiently large share that competition is disadvantaged by the Trust/Monopoly's ability to shape pricing and availability.
The very act of trying to obtain a monopoly can be, if it involves any cooperation at all with direct competitors, a potentially criminal act in the US.

In the UK anti-competitive behaviour is prohibited under Chapters I and II of the Competition Act 1998 (the Act) and may be prohibited under Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty. These laws prohibit anti-competitive agreements between businesses and the abuse of a dominant position in a market.

Competing fairly - GOV.UKhttps://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk ›

Looks like it can be under UK law, too.

Kickstarter denies being a point of sale; while it is a huge factor in the games industry, in terms of long term market for any given product, KS isn't a competitor to DTRPG. In terms of new releases? Well... that's complicated. My last four participation in backing kickstarters have resulted in the materials being delivered via DTRPG, sand DTRPG is getting a cut (not certain how much) of that. All said and done, DTRPG is functioning as a partner to KS, whether or not there's an actual agreement or arrangement between DTRPG/OBS and Kickstarter.

That relationship exists because of KS's customers. Hint: Most of us on the boards are not. We're customers of the real customers: the creators. Same is true for OBS, dba Drive Thru RPG, Wargames Vault, Drive Thru Comics, etc.

Are they big enough to exert monopolistic effect? Technically, that's for a court to decide, but from the layman point of view, yes, they seem to be.

James Raggi is an odd duck for sure, but I think most of us OSR fans have at least one of his books on our shelves...

Only the Free RPG Day ones for me, And the free version of LotFP. Just to see what the hype was.
Still, he's making a valid point about the retroactivity, the lack of identification of who will be doing the vetting, and that it's likely to be merely to hammer down those few who are drawing complaints.

My voice is more important than your money.

I get his point of view. Don't quite share it, don't think the following expletives were needed, but yeah, I get his point of view.

19 pages and climbing...
But it doesn't look like OBS is pushing it hard. Only time will tell.

 

[Jahydin]

@Justice and Rule
That picture of the Dog Boys is really well done. What book is it from?

 

[Justice and Rule]

@Justice and Rule
That picture of the Dog Boys is really well done. What book is it from?

I dunno. Found it online.

 

[Jahydin]

I dunno. Found it online.

Oh man, did some digging and I guess it was for a Rifts Boardgame that never saw the light of day.

Too bad. For a second there I thought maybe they were getting their art back to the quality of those early days.